Sleeping Beauty

A baby, a very odd nurse, a wicked fairy, a handsome prince. We all know the story! As always, GTG provided a well-designed programme, with Director’s and Chair’s notes, rehearsal photos, cast profiles, and even a maze for the kids to help Prince Rupert find Princess Aurora!

Scenery was either just a blank gauze or a beautifully painted one for the palace scenes. The cottage in the wood was very pretty. Props for the kitchen scene were an impressive fridge freezer and range cooker, and an enormous cake. We had a good range of feather dusters, mixing bowls and wooden spoons, and a weird and rather threatening mace for Poison Ivy, the wicked fairy. Lighting was excellent, with varied and impressive effects, which added greatly to the atmosphere of the show.

Godalming Theatre Group can be relied upon to go to town for its panto costumes. Muddles, the Jester, was colourful in the extreme. There were pretty Dirndl type dresses for the chorus at one point. Princess Aurora was very prettily clad, and Prince Rupert cut a dash in his uniform. Nursey, our dame, was amazingly flamboyant, and brought the house down as an illuminated Christmas Tree in the finale. But the piece de resistance was the costume – and hair and makeup – of Poison Ivy. Absolutely marvellous, really scary, and elaborate too, it must have taken a while to produce, but was really worth the effort.

Bob Good’s band were super – brilliant arrangements, great effects and atmosphere, and they never drowned out the singing, so very well-balanced. Sharon Dalton produced some very amusing and effective dance routines.

This production started off slow, but gained pace quickly, once we knew what we were up against with the arrival on the scene of the dreaded Poison Ivy.

We had some great character acting here, from Joel Llufrio, as the jester Muddles; from Paul Prebble as the libidinous Dame, alias Nursey or Penny Cillin (get it?); from Karen Scull and Denise Hodgkiss as the scatty and scared Duck and Dive, pressganged into being Poison Ivy’s loyal assistants. The fairies were good fun, in their fur-hooded jackets with wings attached. Princess Aurora was charmingly played by Leanna Jones, and her voice was beautiful. The cook and doctor roles were hilariously executed by Mary Logan. Prince Rupert was indeed a handsome Prince Charming, Brian Fraser looked the part, very dashing in his uniform, dreamingly waxing lyrical about the girl of his dreams!

The chorus were superb, attacking the dance numbers with great gusto. There was a beautiful scene, by the cottage in the wood, where we were entranced by a young ballerina; there was razzamatazz with River Deep, Mountain High; there was a funny, jolly kitchen scene with mixing bowls and wooden spoons; there was a scary scene with lots of ghosts and ghoulies in frightening masks; all the ensemble pieces were a delight.

But I have left the best till last. Carol Gallacher was astonishingly terrifying, threatening, and mesmerising as Poison Ivy, the wicked fairy, an Oscar winning performance. Her costume and makeup were thrilling in themselves, she held the stage the minute she appeared, even I was a bit scared, so I dread to think how the little folk in the audience felt! Her gestures and facial expressions were so expressive. Superb!

Director Jenny Seddon and her team put together a great panto, with excellent casting, fine and funny performances, and some memorable moments.

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